Yun Kouga MMF: Final Link Roundup

We’ve come to the end of the Yun Kouga Manga Moveable Feast! Though participation was undeniably low, we’re excited about the contributions that were made to the Feast. Here’s a roundup from the past few days:

I weighed in with a new 3 Things Thursday, in which I picked out three (ish) of my favorite female characters from Yun Kouga’s catalogue, including one from Earthian, which I read for the first time this week.

The male-centric sensibility often applies to shoujo manga as well—particularly those penned by creators who enjoy a strong undercurrent of BL subtext in their work, and this absolutely describes Yun Kouga. After all, even Gestalt‘s kick-ass heroine, Ouri, is actually a man temporarily endowed with a female form. Still, Kouga-sensei does not let me down! Female characters are always part of the fabric of her stories, even the most BL-rific of her worlds. For today’s 3 Things Thursday, I’ll look at three of these!

At Experiments in Manga, Ash Brown revisits the first two volumes of Loveless by way of Viz’s new omnibus release – Loveless, Omnibus 1:

The beginning of Loveless is a story of intense yearning and loneliness with characters who have been broken, damaged, and twisted. But even when they despair they still cling to hope. Ritsuka has trouble accepting himself and difficulty trusting others; the attention he receives from Soubi is both welcomed and feared. Loveless is also a story about the power of words. In part because of his association with Soubi, Ritsuka is pulled into a world where battles are waged with words and spells are cast that can cause considerable pain and physical damage … The first omnibus of Loveless raises more questions than it provides answers, but it does establish an intriguing tale and characters. Even having read it before, I still find Loveless to be a strangely enthralling and compelling manga.

Continuing the trend, our own Anna Neatrour at Manga Report gives the Viz’s first omnibus a second chance and finds she’s glad she did – Loveless Vols. 1 and 2:

Some manga seems a bit too edited or mass produced. Unless you’re seeking out manga from some of the more alternative magazines, most mainstream manga isn’t all that weird. The pinnacle of enjoyable manga weirdness in my mind is Est Em’s Working Kentauros. That manga about the slice of life tribulations about Centaur salarymen provides the reader with a peak into a manga creator’s subconscious and ability to be creative without boundaries. Loveless isn’t as unconventionally weird as Working Kentauros, but its combination of cat people, light bondage, magical battles, mysterious organizations, abusive parents, master/servant relationships, and occasional licking definitely add up to a manga that’s a bit more distinctive and quirky than one might expect.

And it’s all Loveless, all the time as Michelle & I celebrate our 100th installment of Off the Shelf with an epic discussion of the series – Off the Shelf, MMF Edition: Loveless:

MICHELLE: I really love the imagery of the “I can’t let go of anyone’s hand” moment, too. Another thing that strikes me about that shirt-buttoning scene is what Ritsuka says during it: “Y’know… I could never do anything like that for you.” Even though he finds violence abhorrent, it’s still his instinct to give Soubi what he needs/craves, and it saddens him that this is something that he simply cannot do.

MJ: Yes, yes! The fact that he words it that way, “for you” rather than “to you” (which is surely the way Kio sees it) acknowledges its importance to Soubi, and makes it clear that, even if Ritsuka can’t quite understand why Soubi would want something like that, he understands that he shouldn’t just dismiss Soubi’s feelings about it.

This wraps up the Yun Kouga MMF! Many thanks to everyone who participated. The complete archive can be found here. We now make way for the Boys’ Love MMF, to be hosted in August by Khursten Santos at Otaku Champloo!

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